First day in the vegetable garden

FINALLY! The day has come to start planting for the 2012 vegetable garden! I never did a post about ordering seeds so what I'm going to do is talk a little about the seeds as I put them in. It was a different experience for me this year as I had to order seeds online. For the first few years of my vegetable garden, my Mom worked at a seed 'store' at the Philadelphia Flower Show where she picked out seeds for me from a wide variety! From that I had a pretty good idea of what companies I liked and what varieties I liked. As always wanting to add new stuff in or try a new variety. I've had my issues so I did make some changes. Also in the interest of not ordering from 10 different places, I didn't use all the companies I have in the past - most notably Seed Savers, I company I did like.

I do a garden plan. I have started using this site, that completely satisfies the anal retentive planner that I am! http://www.growveg.com/growguides.aspx It's a planner that allows me to measure out fairly precisely and include the exact variety that I'm using. Over the season it will tell me when to plant the next batch, what is done, when to plant for fall harvest, etc. I do not have the final plan done yet so I'm not going to post it quite yet. I do have the general idea and I started with that yesterday. My Plots are simply named A-D, maybe someday I'll be inspired to name them something else.

The plots were rototilled last week. Last fall we put down straw with the hopes that it would break down into the soil over the winter. Well, our winter didn't allow that! No snow or much precipitation. It did make the rototill a bit more challenging along with rain that came along towards the end. That is just going to make a little extra work for me to prep each bed. Typically I go around and edge to define each plot and weed along the fence. Here is what it looked like to start:

This is Plot D which has the asparagus - you can see the dead stuff standing up there. I needed to clean that up and level off the bed. My plan for this plot along with the asparagus is peas along the back fence there, the summer squash - 3 varieties - and beets - also 3 varieties.

Here it is looking all pretty ready for me to start measuring out! I put down black gardeners fabric along the paths 1) to control the weeds 2) so that people know where to walk. I actually had some leftover from last year so I started to put it down - it's never too soon to control those weeds!

I was finally able to put in the peas and beets. I did plan out where the summer squash is going to go and may end up just covering the area with fabric to control the weeds this spring, then cut out the areas where those mounds are going to go. I am going to need to control vine borer so I have some ideas of what I'm going to do when I actually plant the summer squash later in May, early June.

Here are the beets! I have had a lot of trouble growing beets so I'm moving them away from a lot of other items to see if that helps. I've had them grow alongside carrots, which shouldn't be a problem with nutrients, but you never know. I'm trying to pay special attention to my PH levels this year and give each vegetable the attention it needs to grow fully. Every year I've focused on one thing particularly so this year it's the beets - I'm determined to have lots! You will see that I have 3 kinds... 2 were ordered from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds - Golden & Chioggia. The third kind is from High Mowing, a brand I've had success with in the carrots. I chose their Boro F1 Hybrid, which is supposed to be somewhat disease resistant.
I have 2 different kinds of peas - I was excited to find a brand that Mom & I have used in the past, Franchi, which is Italian. I grew their small pea pods last year so this year I chose a more prolific one, called the Wrinkle Pea. I then reused my sugar snaps from Botanical Interests.
Finally I saw some asparagus poking thru the ground!!! I can only hope that we'll be eating it by the end of the month!

Not to be outdone, I have a new addition to my garden! Steps and a walkway that our landscaper, Mike Shafer, put in on Friday! I laboriously dug out a section of my garden last fall that housed 2500 daffodil bulbs, and a variety of other goodies - well, not all goodies. This was an area in my garden that was a thorn in my side. I am very much looking forward to how it will look as the summer progresses and the plantings around it enclose it for a secret little path!

 Here are some shots of how it used to look! A year ago with all the daffodils and then as the summer progressed and it would become an overgrown nightmare, that housed a beautiful hibiscus!